


The Water Getting Deeper

by angelheadedhipster, kirenamuln, nitpickyabouttrains



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Good Lord This Thing We Made, M/M, Multi, Pacific Rim AU, cardiff shatterdome!, gloomy, happy birthday we got you a dead rose, ship the doctor with everyone!, the doctor's haunted past, we knew you wanted it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2013-09-04
Packaged: 2017-12-25 15:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/954569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelheadedhipster/pseuds/angelheadedhipster, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirenamuln/pseuds/kirenamuln, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitpickyabouttrains/pseuds/nitpickyabouttrains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone new comes to Cardiff Shatterdome. </p><p>(Doctor Who Pacific Rim AU.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Water Getting Deeper

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FlameBlownWhiter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlameBlownWhiter/gifts).



> We wrote this for [FlameBlownWhiter](http://archiveofourown.org/users/FlameBlownWhiter/pseuds/FlameBlownWhiter) for her birthday. Her prompt was River and Jack flirting in a Jaeger. We….went a little overboard, and also gloomy.
> 
>  
> 
> So many thank you's to [silverflyingmachine](http://archiveofourown.org/users/silverflyingmachine/pseuds/silverflyingmachine) and Naomi for beta-ing, and at pretty short notice!

Pausing in the doorway before making her presence known, River took a moment to observe the Doctor. He was sitting at his desk, which alone was strange. He was not the sort of man who seemed natural behind a desk. He always seemed to be moving, full of energy and passion. But since taking this job, running the Jaeger program, the Doctor had to spend time in an office.

Today he was fiddling with some sort of tool, which River had not seen before, sort of a screwdriver that was glowing at the end. The Doctor had that look in his eyes, the one that might have looked like he was involved in his task, if you did not know him. But River did know him. She had been inside of his mind. She knew that he was lost in his thoughts, elsewhere, thinking about at least three other things that no one else could see.

His head was bent, shoulders drawn up, his hair wild and untamed, standing up on its ends. River could tell he had been running his hands through it all afternoon. Which meant he was troubled by something. The office was dim, the main light off, and the Doctor was working from a lamp on his desk. The light from it cast him in a shadow, illuminating the shine of his eyes and elongating the dark circles under his eyes, making him look at once excited and tired. Still, he was wearing his ever-present suit and his bowtie was as tight around his neck as it always was. On the wall behind the door, on a peg, hung his Stetson, ready for him to grab when he left the room.

River let out a small chuckle at the picture it created, this man who commanded such respect but could not fit in with the people around him. He never could. He was different.

The noise made the Doctor look up and notice River. He flashed her a familiar smile. “Dr. Song,” he greeted.

“Hello, sweetie,” River grinned back.

“You are here in my office,” the Doctor said. She could see the twinkle in his eyes, the energy in him, the brilliance. But she could also see that it lasted for only a moment. He was excited to see her, but it did not last. “So there must be trouble.”

River leaned against the door, smirking at him. “Can’t a girl just stop by just because she’s feeling friendly?”

“A girl could, probably,” said the Doctor. “River Song, probably not.”

River did not bother to hedge around her point, and jumped right in. “I don’t want you to call Jack. Don’t bring him here.”

“It’s too late,” the Doctor said. “He is on his way already.” He rubbed his hand over his face, finishing with his fingers in his hair, so that he looked even more eccentric. Letting out a sigh, he said, “Jack is potentially drift compatible with you, his tests are off the charts. And you are both too good at being pilots not to be in a Jaeger. You have to at least try, River. It is the end of the world we're talking about." He looked away from her now, back at the papers on his desk. "Besides," he added, "you'll like Jack."

“You could also be drift compatible with _me_ ,” River said passionately.

"No, River," he said calmly. He still wasn't looking at her, writing something on the papers in front of him. "You already know my answer to that. I'm never getting back in a Jaeger again. Especially not with you."

River opened her mouth to argue, or at least to get him to look at her. This was always how it was with him - she wanted so much more than he was willing to give her. She was constantly running forward and he was always calmly backing away.

Before she could speak, he looked up, finally, and locked eyes with her, eyes that seemed so much older than his face. "I won't hurt you again," he said.

River knew knew why he would not get back into a pilot’s seat, she knew what happened last time. The last time the Doctor had tried to drift, it had been with her. River could not remember the details of what happened. They had begun the neural handshake, there had been flashes of memories, his, a woman’s, and something else. Something different. Something alien.

The next thing River remembered was waking up on the floor of the deck. Blood was trickling out of her ear, sticky and warm on the side of her face, pooling on the Doctor’s knee. Her head was in the Doctor’s lap and when her eyes fluttered open, she could see nothing but the hazel of his eyes, shining with unshed tears and worry.

She had been back up on her feet and to work just days after, but the Doctor had not been able to look her in the eye for weeks. He was skittish and distant, going out of his way not to interact with her, and acting strangely when he had to. The Doctor did not react well when people got hurt, especially if he cause it.

All she wanted for him to let her back in. He was different and special and clever and the single person most like her that she had ever met. But ever since _Bad Wolf_ he was also alone. His mind was like no one else’s, too powerful and extraordinary.

River had never been very good at doing what everyone else did. She was special, too. Sometimes River thought of how great they could have been, her and the Doctor, if things had been different. If she had met him earlier. Before Rose. She shook her head and voiced that very thought, “You and I don’t do anything in the right order.”

“Yes,” the Doctor seemed to follow her train of thought. Of course he did. He was so clever. “You are just starting and I am done.”

He glanced behind himself with those words. There was nothing to see there, just a wall. But behind that wall was the Shatterdome and beyond that, all of Cardiff. River understood what he meant. He was done with being a pilot. He was done with being like everyone else.

River knew she had lost this battle, for now. She turned, without another word and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

+++

Jack Harkness had been to a fair number of Shatterdomes in his day, but Cardiff still held a special place in his heart. He found himself grinning as the platform lowered him from street level to the Shatterdome’s interior, and let out an actual laugh as the lift stuttered in the same place it always had. Cardiff! Good old slightly dysfunctional Cardiff, grey and grimy and where he’d learned everything he knew.

The lift stopped and a massive metal door creaked open. Jack strode forward without waiting for it to stop moving, his long coat billowing out behind him.

Even when you were used to them, Shatterdomes were just so big. Gusts of air from every corner, sparks flashing in the distant regions of the room, The sound of many many voices, people shouting out instructions to each other. Jack turned his head around looking at all of the jaegers in the corners of the room – _Weeping Angel, Vortex Maniuplator, Chameleon Circuit_. They all looked proud and shiny, even with swarms of uniforms on top of them, hammering and sodering. Cardiff might be rundown, but she was busy, and she was good.

And then Jack saw the reason she was that good, the only man who could get him to leave his own team and travel across the whole globe to start something new.

"You look different," said Jack, sticking out his hand.

"Yes, people keep saying that,” said the Doctor. “I’ve changed the color of my bowtie, that’s probably it.” He grabbed Jack’s hand and grinned that lopsided grin at him, the grin that made him look like a child with a new toy, and pulled him into a hug.

The Doctor was stronger than he looked. The Doctor was more of everything than he looked, actually. Jack wrapped his arms around the taller man and breathed in deeply, his eyes closing as a rush of memories came over him. Skin and lips and teeth, that soft laugh that seemed like it was always surprised out of him, the way The Doctor’s eyes squeezed shut as he came. Jack felt himself leaning forward, leaning into the hug, even as he could feel the Doctor pulling away from him. Wasn’t that always the way.

“Plus,” said the Doctor as he pulled back, stood alone on the floor of his Shatterdome, “you haven’t seen me in ages.”

“Years,” said Jack, his mind spinning, awash in memories and something like longing. He hadn’t felt that way in a long time; he had thought he was past it.

“A lot has happened,” said the Doctor. “Aside from the many giant sea monster attacks, I mean. Although lots of those, as well.” He started walking, only looking back out of the very corner of his eye to see if Jack was following. The Doctor always thought you were following; he could not imagine why you wouldn’t be.

“How is Torchwood?” The Doctor asked as they strode down a flight of stairs.

“Oh,” Jack said, and then paused. He wasn’t allowed to talk about Torchwood, to anyone, but the Doctor knew that, but surely the Doctor knew everything that was going on at Torchwood anyway, there was no one in the world who had a higher security clearance than him, but still, he couldn’t talk about it, but-

“Good, good,” said the Doctor. “As I expected. Where are you now?”

“New York,” said Jack, and grinned again. “I love it - you meet so many people.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes at him as they rounded a corner. “Of course you do, Jack,” he said.

Jack just smiled at him; he wasn’t making apologies, least of all to this old friend. “What about you, Doctor? Are you...meeting anyone, here?” He tried to make his tone as obvious as possible, but you could walk around in assless chaps in front of the Doctor and he would merely remark on how impractical those seemed for actually riding horses. Jack knew, he had tried.

The Doctor didn’t answer, and if anything, walked even faster. Jack could only keep up because his legs were nearly as long. It was sort of nice, actually, striding around the Shatterdome with someone who walked like he did.

“You remember Donna Noble?” said the Doctor, looking round to catch Jack’s expression. Seeing him looking blank, he continued, “Oh, I suppose not, she was just support when you were here. Anyway, she’s the Chief LOCCENT Officer now, she’ll be getting you outfitted and everything. You’ll like her - a good egg, Donna Noble.”

He had stopped - they were at the doors to living quarters now - and turned to look at Jack. His eyes were so different, thought Jack. Everything about him seemed the same, on the outside, but it wasn’t, not at all. Jack didn’t know if he knew this man at all.

“Doctor, I - what happened?” Jack asked. “Rose, I - I heard, but how...” He trailed off, knowing he wasn’t going to get an answer. The Doctor just looked at him with those sad eyes, so much older than they should be. Something grew and deepened in the back of those eyes, something Jack couldn’t understand.

“Get some rest, Jack,” said the Doctor. “We’ll try the neural handshake at 1400 hours.” And he spun around with one of his quick, jerky movements and walked away, leaving Jack staring after him.

“What’s that line?” said a voice behind him, a woman’s voice, with a slight teasing quality to it. “‘I hate to see him go, but I love to watch him leave?’”

Jack spun around. “I wasn’t -” No, but really, he totally had been. Lots of things had changed, but the perfect, round bite-ability of the Doctor’s ass wasn’t one of them.

The speaker was a young black woman, dressed in a white jumpsuit with a bright red plus sign on the lapel. She was grinning at him in a knowing way, and she was completely gorgeous. Jack grinned back.

“You were,” she said.

“I was,” he said.

She laughed, and walked over closer to him. “I don’t blame you, really.” She stuck out her hand, her face open and inviting. “Martha Jones, chief medical officer.”

“Captain Jack Harkness,” he said, giving her his best thousand-watt movie star smile, and shook. “Hello.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said, totally unflapped. Damn. “Are you hungry? I was on my way to the mess hall, if you want to join me.”

"Sure, thanks,” said Jack, and before the words were out of his mouth she’d turned on her heel and started walking, talking to him over her shoulder. People moved so fast here. Maybe they were all emulating the Doctor - never walk when you can run, never do one thing at a time when you can be doing seven.

"He wouldn't have noticed, anyway," said Martha. Jack took a second to remember who they were talking about, but then, who else. "He never does."

Jack looked sideways at her, cool and pretty, competence written all over. "You, too, huh?"

Martha shrugged. "Once," she said. "Awhile ago. I mean, nothing, not…nothing ever happened between us. I just…”

"What happened?" asked Jack. There was a particularly loud screech overhead, the sound of metal tearing. Martha didn't look up.

"When did you know him?" she asked.

"When I was here," said Jack. "Training and working here."

"Before Rose?" asked Martha.

"Before, and during, sort of," said Jack. "I met her first, actually." He wasn't quite sure he wanted to explain the whole...thing with him and the Doctor and Rose to this woman he just met, even if he did like her. He had a flash of Rose's face, cheeks flushed and hair in her mouth, sandwiched between his chest and the Doctor's...He shook his head, trying to clear it. This kept happening to him today, making him feel porous and vulnerable, like he was Drifting already. He didn't like it.

"And then I left," Jack continued, "went to Torchwood, and then..."

"She died," said Martha. They had reached the mess now, the same as any other Jack had been in - long industrial tables, tired looking men and women in jumpsuits, reheated protein packets.

Jack turned, looked Martha right in the eye. "What happened? To Rose, to him? Really?"

Martha gave him a long look, a considering one. "Let's get something to eat," she said. "I'll tell you, when we sit down."

Jack scurried through the line and was already wolfing down reheated shiny gloop when Martha joined him at an empty table, as far away from everyone else as he could make it. She sat down carefully, busying herself with forks and packets and things, not looking up at him.

There was a pause, and Jack arched an eyebrow. He opened his mouth - maybe to say never mind, maybe to urge her on, he wasn’t sure - but Martha started talking.

"They were the best. That's why there were there, when maybe they shouldn't have been," she said. "You probably know how good Rose was, and he was, of course."

Jack nodded. "They had just started piloting together when I left."

"Right," said Martha. "And together they were...I mean, I wasn't there then, but I've heard about it. They were the best Jaeger this program had ever seen, two incredible pilots who were so compatible, so perfectly in sync in the Drift that..." She picked at the foil on her packet, stabbing it with her fork. "And they loved it, that was the thing. Anybody could tell, that's what I've heard. They loved it, they loved each other, they loved being in the Jaeger together, they loved the fight. They were so good and it was worked so well."

"So what happened?"

Martha sighed. "There was a Category 5, up in the waters near Iceland. It was on their way home, they'd just stomped two Category 4s with help from somebody from Siberia Shatterdome, and they really should have just gone home and had someone else deal with it, or at least gotten backup, but they were so good, and everyone trusted them, so they took it themselves."

"And it killed Rose," said Jack.

"Yes," said Martha. "And also....well, no one really knows. But...Anyway, it ripped Rose out of the Conn-Pod, but she was still alive, at first. They were still connected, still drifting, even as she was in the Kaiju's mouth."

"Wait, it ate her?" Jack was slightly incredulous. He'd never heard of Kaijus doing that. They weren't Godzilla or something.

"Who knows," said Martha. "Probably just grabbed her with it's teeth, and then _Bad Wolf_ killed it. Or she killed it. The point is, both the Kaiju and Rose died, at the same instant."

She paused again, looking down at her hands. Jack waited. Around them he could hear the mess hall, clinking of silverware and the sounds of voices, but it all felt very far away.

"Do you know what happens when a pilot dies while Drifting?" she asked, looking up and straight at him. Jack tried not to blink. "I could give you the specific neural reactions, but basically, their brain spasms and goes into shock. The Drift is severed, but first there's...almost a brain dump, random neural inputs sparking between the two pilots, before the connection is lost forever."

Jack tried to imagine it - the connection and peace of Drifting, and then the link broken, ripped out, lost.

"Most pilots...well, there aren't so many test subjects," she said, and shot Jack a look. He knew what she meant. If you lost one pilot, you almost always lost the other. Pilots who survived the death of their co were few and far between. "But they describe those last seconds, after the pain and the fear, when the brain is really dying, as impossible to comprehend, whirls of images and ideas and memories, almost an explosion of thought. Before it cuts out."

Jack nodded. "So that happened to the Doctor. When Rose died."

"Yes, but more than that," she said. She took a deep breath. "Rose died at the same instant as the Kaiju, and it seems that, somehow, their minds were linked. Maybe it was a physical proximity thing, or, some sort of evolutionary defense mechanism on this particular specimen, we will never know. But when they both died -"

"Wait," said Jack. "Are you saying...Rose and the Kaiju were Drifting?"

"It's possible," said Martha. "We've always known that our minds could do it. No one's ever really had a live Kaiju to test it out with in any sort of controlled circumstances, but it's happened."

"So they were...both connected to the Doctor?" Jack said. Martha nodded. "And when they both died..."

"Right," said Martha. "When the Kaiju died, its mind exploded into the Doctor's. Along with Rose's," she added, almost as an afterthought.

Jack sat looking at her, stunned. He thought about the darkness behind the Doctor's eyes, about that sense of remove he felt from him. The sense that there were things in his head that no one else could know.

"What did he see?" he asked.

Martha shook her head. "He has never talked about it," she said. "At first, he couldn't. They found him in the remnants of _Bad Wolf_ , a few hundred miles from where the Kaiju had been. He was still in his pilot suit, blood all over, totally catatonic. People say that his eyes were glowing."

She looked at Jack as she said it, as if daring him to contradict. Not him. Not after some of the stuff he'd seen.

"Catatonic?" Jack asked.

"Jack, it should have killed him," she said. "We have no data for comparison, but pilots surviving the death of someone their drifting with are rare enough. Combine that with...whatever happened with the Kaiju, and....They brought him back here, and it still took some time, weeks, before he could function normally again." She paused, and looked down at her fingers on the table. "That's when I met him. I was a resident, in the hospital wing here. I watched him knit his brain back together." Her voice had gone a bit small, shaky.

Jack got it. He could imagine that experience, Martha the smart young medical professional, confident she'd seen everything, and then the Doctor shows up, back from the dead, reconstructing himself before her eyes, into something...else. "That would do it," he said.

"I was...It was not good. For me. I mean, not good for him either, obviously, but he never even looked at me. I just...pined, from afar."

"I'm sorry," said Jack. Martha looked awful, really heartbroken, for a second, and then she looked up and smiled at him.

"Thanks, but I'm fine now," she said. "Married, even!" and she waggled her left ring finger at him.

"Aw, man," said Jack. "All the gorgeous ones are." He pouted at her, exaggerated it just a little bit. Martha laughed.

"I am good," she said.

"So is he," said Jack, and he didn't have to say who he meant.

Martha nodded. "He always was, but now he...there's something he knows. Lots of things, probably, about them. He can predict, sometimes, what will happen. Knows their weaknesses, knows what to expect. He's the best in the world."

They sat in silence for a moment. The mess hall had emptied around them, only a few stragglers left at the table. It must be after 1300 by now.

"So, River Song?" Jack asked, as much to have something else to say as anything.

"It's hard to figure her out," said Martha, her head tilting. "They act like they're married, but you never see them alone together."

Jack's mouth quirked up at the side. "I meant, do you like her."

"Oh!" said Martha. She might have been blushing a bit. "Sure. Everyone likes River."

+++

River stepped out into the Conn-Pod, suited up and ready to go. She could feel the adrenaline coursing through her, the excitement. Even knowing she was not about to face a Kaiju, it was a thrilling experience to be a pilot of a Jaeger. To run the machine, to have all that power in her hands. Well, her hands and the hands of someone else.

That was what today was all about. Meeting her new copilot. The man the Doctor had brought in from another program. Apparently their tests and work on the simulator showed them as highly compatible. And today River was there to test that theory.

The door opened behind her and River turned, just enough to see the man who had walked into the Conn-Pod. No, walked was the wrong word. He swaggered. “Hello, handsome,” she said, giving him a wicked grin.

Handsome was no exaggeration. This man was beautiful. Sharp features, a cleft chin loosely dusted with stubble, and the brightest blue eyes. River had never seen eyes like that, the color of the sky on a clear summer day, light blue but still deep and true. And they were looking at her, twinkling with some unspoken amusement. Then he winked. “Hey, doll.”

Over the com in her helmet, River could practically hear the Doctor roll his eyes. “Here we go.”

“I’d introduce myself, but seeing as we are about to be in each other’s heads, there doesn’t seem to be much of a point.” River said, inclining her head toward the controls.

Jack nodded, and took a few steps further into the Conn-Pod, swaying his hips as he moved. That was fairly impressive, River could not help but think, drivesuits did not make movement like that easy. Everything about this guy was smooth. He held out a hand. “Then let’s not waste any more time.”

“After you,” River said.

Jack just flashed her a wide grin and went over to the left side of the controls. She watched him walked away with appreciation. Even in the suit, it was not a bad view.

“Everything alright?” Jack asked, when he noticed she was not right behind him.

“Just enjoying the view,” River laughed. There was no reason to lie. He was going to see everything she thought in just a moment.

He let out a bark of laughter and kept walking to his post. River could not be sure, but he seemed to toss some extra sway into his hip when he reached his spot.

“Of course,” said the Doctor into her helmet, the exasperation in his voice colored by fondness. “I don’t know how I thought this was going to be a good idea.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Jack.

River followed his lead and went to lock into the controls. She stepped in, her feet securing in place. To her left, she saw Jack was doing the same. Once they were both in place, Jack spoke again, this time not to her, but to the LOCCENT mission control. “The lovely lady and I are ready to begin, whenever you are.”

“Everyone all set?” the Doctor asked.

“You didn’t tell me you were bringing me such a pretty new toy,” River said to the Doctor, her way of letting him know she was comfortable.

The Doctor snorted loudly enough that River was able to hear it through the com link. “Watch it, you two,” he said, a small warning in his tone.

“Initiating relay gel,” came the exasperated voice of Donna.

Yellow gel flowed through her pons helmet and River’s heart sped up ever so slightly. This was it. The final step of preparation. Next to her she heard Jack emit a long, low, whistle. “Here we go,” he said, sounding as excited as River felt.

“Are you ready to ride?” River asked, knowing that the first neural handshake was the most difficult. They were both about to be exposed to the other’s whole life, good and bad.

“You have no idea,” Jack said, practically gleeful.

Donna’s voice was the last thing River heard before falling into the drift. “Begin neural handshake.”

+++

The sucking sensation was the worst part - like being ripped out of his own head, like his mind was dripping into his stomach. Jack felt a wave of nausea, and then he felt nothing at all.

_He was flying and then I was standing there was my mother there was a girl from my second grade class there was my first Kaiju my first kill faster faster faster_

_And then there was the Doctor, bending over me and smiling, his nose folding against mine, my blond curls tickling his cheek..._

_Mine?_

“Jack.” There’s a vibration near his ear, but it means nothing, vibrations in the air, colors made sounds. The Doctor’s eyes are cloudy now, moving away, no, come back -

There were suddenly words in Jack’s head, words he understood rather than heard, reverberating throughout his whole consciousness. _The only water in the forest is the river_. Letters fifty feet tall, burning and filling his vision. An echoing, booming sentence. _The only water in the forest is the river. The only water in the forest is the river._ The whole universe is only these words, they are the only words that have ever existed. _The only water in the forest is the river the only water in the forest is the river the only water in the forest is -_

Jack knew his eyes had been open this whole time, but now he could actually see again, see the screen in front of his face, the metal walls of the Conn-Pod around him. He felt his body in his pilot’s suit, flexed his fingers, and River’s, too.

“Neural bridge engaged,” said Donna, her voice calm but maybe amazed, and Jack heard her and knew that River heard her, too, could hear it with her ears just like his.

He could feel his awareness in her body, and her mind in his, watching through his eyes, listening to what she heard. She was next to him and within him, floating calmly inside his own awareness. It felt easy, like she’d always been there. Like he was only now discovering a part of himself that had always existed, a part that existed outside but also within him. It had never been this easy before, never.

“That was the fastest successful linkup I’ve ever seen,” said Donna, her usual no-nonsense tone more muted and awed.

Jack felt River smile in his head, and smiled back. He thought about gratitude and excitement to her, and felt her answering laughter, joy mixed with ease and wonder.

“I did tell you,” the Doctor muttered, and Jack felt fond exasperation, his own or River’s, he wasn’t sure.

He thought about that kiss he saw, the Doctor’s sad eyes backing away, and River thought about one of his memories, the Doctor writhing under him, gasping and coming into his hand. There was a question and then a sensation of “not now, later,” and then, “we’ll talk.”

Jack brought up the left arm, just to see, and they clenched it into a fist, and they laughed, it was so easy. They could do anything.

“Well,” said the Doctor. “Not much else to see here. Disengage?”

Jack felt a sudden sadness, fear of losing this, and then reassurance. They would be back. This was just the beginning.

Disengaging is so much simpler, like turning off a switch. Jack staggered, the air around him suddenly feeling thinner, but righted himself and turned to look at River, who was also picking her feet out of the controls.

“Was it good for you, too?” she said. Her lips quirked up at the corner and her eyes were laughing and Jack didn’t think he’d ever felt so fond of someone in his life, and he had only met her ten minutes ago.

“The earth moved,” said Jack. “Let’s do it again.”

“Stop it,” said the Doctor’s voice in their ears, and River grinned at Jack.

“Was that aimed at me, or at tall-dark-and-handsome here?” she asked, her voice all innocence.

“You haven’t even seen me out of this suit yet,” said Jack.

“You two are going to be the death of me,” said the Doctor.

Jack laughed, and so did River, her nose crinkling.


End file.
